Ulster Club SFC quarter-final: Dromore v Derrygonnelly (today, 1.30pm, Carrickmore)
THE saying goes that luck is when opportunity meets preparation.
Dromore and Derrygonnelly, just like Creggan and Clann Éireann, have done the preparation part and in the four of them being situated on one side of the Ulster Club draw, they’ve had their luck.
As recent winners of their sixth county title in seven years, Derrygonnelly’s experience of the provincial series is incomparably greater than any of the other three sides in their way.
This will be Dromore’s first outing for a decade. Creggan and Clann Éireann have never played in Ulster.
Derrygonnelly’s record since 2015 underlines the value of experience.
In their first game six years ago, they went man-to-man against the reigning Ulster champions, Slaughtneil. They were hockeyed. It finished 4-13 to 1-4.
Twelve months later, against the same opposition, they played a very different way and were in the game until the death, losing by five.
In 2017, faced with a similar draw to this year, they beat virgin champions Armagh Harps and were squeezed out in an epic semi-final replay by Cavan Gaels.
Having suffered a bad aberration against Scotstown in 2018, they returned to beat a fancied Trillick side on penalties before outplaying eventual All-Ireland finalists Kilcoo in the semi-final, only to be undone by a brilliant piece of quick-thinking by Conor Laverty.
The Fermanagh champions are 11/4 outsiders with the bookmakers for their trip to Carrickmore this afternoon.
That is a crazy price.
They might have let leads slip and conceded bad goals at bad times against both Ederney and Kinawley, but twice they crawled their way through replays and extra-time before proving too long in the tooth for Enniskillen Gaels in the final.
Ederney were reigning champions and in a crazy first encounter, Derrygonnelly had led by 1-4 to 0-0 yet found themselves needing to kick the game’s last five scores to snatch a second outing, having conceded three goals.
It was the Harps who had the legs when the replay finished 0-9 apiece, as goals from Leigh Jones and Gary McKenna finally separated the sides in extra-time.
The shoe was on the other foot when they squandered a five-point lead in the last ten minutes against Kinawley but Mick Glynn’s men were worth their 0-12 to 1-5 replay win.
Dromore’s thrilling run to their fourth Tyrone title in history, their first since 2011, was not predicted, least of all when they were seven points down to champions Dungannon in the first round.
That first Derrygonnelly-Ederney game bore remarkable similarities to Dromore’s Tyrone semi-final win over Trillick, when Colm McCullagh’s team led by seven, trailed by five and won by two.
Their county final win over Coalisland was built on a dominant second half in which they took control at midfield and repeatedly opened the Fianna with their pace from deep.
The fact that this game is being played on a Carrickmore surface that plays much tighter than Healy Park, which is unavailable due to Omagh’s Christmas Market, might suit a physically bigger Derrygonnelly side.
Then you throw in the fact that Tyrone’s clubs have that horrendous Ulster club record. Aside from Errigal Ciaran being the only club ever to have won it (twice), Omagh in 2014 have been the county’s only provincial finalists since the Dunmoyle men’s last success in 2002.
Rarely have any of their county champions had the path cleared for them the way Dromore have this year though. Kilcoo, Glen, St Eunan’s, Scotstown and Ramor all in the next room scrapping over a final place that any of them would have really fancied earning on this side.
Derrygonnelly will play how they play. Ryan Jones and Stephen McGullion are a big, fearsome pair at midfield that Dromore will have to find ways to get around.
They’ll look direct to Conall Jones, although for a lot of the Fermanagh final they completely overused that hand when it wasn’t working.
They will have noted that Dromore’s full-back line has struggled with early ball. Dungannon threatened to make serious hay off it, while Paddy McNeice kicked four points from play for Coalisland in the final, all off winning his own ball.
But the Ernemen will be equally concerned by how little of the copious amounts of it they kicked in that stuck against Enniskillen Gaels.
Derrygonnelly’s defensive match-ups will be interesting. 18-year-old Aaron Jones is the most physically suited to the flying Emmet McNabb, but they might opt for the experience of Mickey Jones instead. Tiarnan Daly will go on Tiarnan Sludden.
While Derrygonnelly’s midfield are big men, they’ll be worried about how much their opponents are made tick by Niall Sludden, who is playing in the middle for Dromore.
You can never quite know when it comes to Ulster Club, and when you don’t, it’s safer to side with the devil you do.
Derrygonnelly to use their December nous and upset the odds.
